


Elysium

by coldfiredragon



Category: The Magicians (TV)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, M/M, but I fix them, my boys are broken, queliot, you might want tissues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-15
Updated: 2017-04-15
Packaged: 2018-10-19 03:36:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10631334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coldfiredragon/pseuds/coldfiredragon
Summary: Quentin and Julia travel to the Underworld in hopes of reuniting Julia with her shade but each of them faces a unique choice when they find Eliot's as well.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Tissues, you will probably need them! I needed them when I was writing this. It doesn't feature a character death, but there are references to a character's death. I promise I make it better at the end. 
> 
> Read and Enjoy.

Splitting up when they reach Elysium is absolutely the wrong thing to do, but by the time they reach the massive house, she and Quentin have less than 3 hours to find her shade and get back out before the dragon kills them. They take a moment to pick a time to meet, set alarms on their watches and then she goes one way, and he goes another. 

It only takes her 15 minutes to find her shade self. The dark haired girl had she really ever been that young, lights up the second she sees her. Julia feels more whole than she has in weeks just holding her against her chest. 

“Did you come here alone?” Shade Julia asks. Julia cups the child's face in both her hands and gently pets the soft dark hair back. 

“Um, no, Quentin came with me.” 

“Quentin came too?” The delighted smile that spreads across the girl's face makes Julia smile too. 

“Yeah, we split up to look for you. So, we need to find him so we can all go home.” Julia feels her smile widened a fraction as her shade's fingers slip into hers and pull her forward. 

“Eliot can help us find him.” The girl tells her. The smile falls off Julia's face, and she stumbles through two or three steps when her legs stop working. 

“Wait, El... Eliot, Eliot Waugh?” Her shade nods. “How is he, that's impossible. Eliot went niffin. He died.” The girl has to be wrong because Eliot can't be here. It just isn't possible. 

“That's what happens to a magician when they become a niffin, they lose their shade, and their shade comes here.” Shade Julia tells her, in a tone that is so matter-of-fact that it's almost like she's lecturing. “It's why nobody has ever been able to reverse a niffin; they don't know that they need the person's shade too.” The girl smiles a little. It's not a cruel smile; it's the one that has always come to Julia when she learns something new about magic when she learns something new about anything really. 

“I had no idea,” Julia whispers. She wipes her fingers at the corner of her eye. “We need to find Quentin.” She says again. “Preferably without Eliot's help.” 

“But it would be faster if we are all looking.” Shade Julia insists. “And Eliot will want to see him.”

“Sweetheart, I don't think it's a good idea if they see each other.” Julia tries to explain. 

“But they never got to say goodbye, so they need that.” The girl pulls Julia forward again, and this time Julia makes her legs move. Maybe Quentin does need closure. She still doesn't think it's a good idea. She and her shade step out into the hall and Julia leads the way back towards the corridor Quentin had headed down. 

The two of them start searching rooms and Julia silently prays that for once since she heard the name Brakebills luck will actually be on her side. It isn't. Luck abandoned her long ago because when they do find Quentin, there's a lanky eight-year-old with a head full of loose dark curls locked in Quentin's embrace. 

“Oh Q...” Julia didn't mean to disturb them, but her best friend's name slips past her lips before she can stop it. They both turn to look at her and Julia wishes she'd slipped back into the hall without saying anything. Eliot's amber eyes are ones that don't belong on any kid. That 'seen too much sadness' look that had clung to adult Eliot is worse on a child's face. If Julia could embrace her emotions properly, she might cry, because there is only enough empty space in her soul for them to slip one shade out of here. 

“How much time do I have left?” Quentin asks. Julia checks her alarm; there's a little less than an hour left before they had agreed to meet. 

“Less than an hour.” Quentin nods and pulls Eliot towards a nearby couch. They curl up together with Eliot's head tucked under Quentin's chin, and Julia can't watch them anymore. She grabs her shade's wrist and pulls the girl back into the hall. 

“I thought they would be happier.” Shade Julia tells her as they slide down the wall to sit beside the door. 

“We can't take Eliot's shade with us, and they both know that,” Julia tells her. 

“You could!” The girl insists suddenly, and Julia knows exactly what she's implying, because the same thought has occurred to her. “If it would make Q happier.” Bless this girl, Julia thinks, because Quentin's their best friend, and if there's a chance to take care of him she will jump at it. 

“I don't think we can help him though,” Julia says softly. “Even if we have his shade.” Shade Julia bounces to her feet.

“I'll be back.” She promises.

“Wait.” Julia is less than thrilled about letting her shade out of her sight. They don't have time to track her down again if she disappears. 

“Two minutes.” The girl runs before Julia can stand, and she returns about three minutes later with paper and pens. “We can try to figure out the math.” Shade Julia tells her breathlessly. Julia doesn't tell her that she has no idea where even to start. She supposes that merging a niffin and their shade is theoretically possible, but the energy it would require would be enormous. The process was more likely to turn the caster into a niffin than bring the niffin they were trying to save back. 

“It's worth a try.” Julia agrees. She takes a leaf of paper and scribbles a few numbers, but she doesn't have any base to start with. They have zero research. Her shade seems to realize the same thing, because a moment later she drops her pen, then grabs up the papers and crumples them into a ball in anger. 

“You can work on it when you get home.” Shade Julia insists. 

“We will,” Julia promises her. She hugs the girl to her, kisses her forehead, and pets her hair. “I know how much you want to help him because I want to do the same thing, but right now we can't. We have to merge, sweetheart, and when we get home, we'll find a way to fix this. I will find a way to fix this.” Once she and her shade merge, she'll be one whole person again, with a drive that hadn't been there before. 

Shade Julia nods and hugs her, then like that Julia's arms are empty and her mind is flooded with emotion for the first time in weeks. The feelings are so strong that she gets lost in them, and nothing breaks through the flood until she hears Quentin's alarm echo from inside the room. Her watch chimes seconds later. Julia doesn't know if she should go in or wait for Quentin to come out. Before she can make up her mind, Quentin is stepping into the hallway. 

“We have to go.” His voice is hollow, and his eyes are dull. “Where is she?” He asks when he doesn't see her shade. 

“We merged.” Julia blinks away tears and hugs him. She expects him to return the embrace, but his arms stay flat at his sides. 

“Good, let's go.” There is something wrong with him. Julia can sense it. She's known Quentin since they were children. 

“Quentin, Q, I'm sorry. I didn't know he'd be here.” It's entirely possible that the shock of finding his fiance's shade had sent his depression into overdrive, but this feels different. 

“Neither did I. It's fine, Julia. Everything will work out.” He gives her a devil may care smile. “We are running out of time.” He points out. 

“Quentin?” She recognizes the way he's acting. There's a flippancy to him that she can identify with. “No, you didn't.” The door is still wide open, and she looks inside. The sight of two wide-eyed boys, peeking over the back of the couch, and clinging to each other like they are about to be pulled apart again, brings tears to her eyes. “Quentin, you can't...” 

“It's my soul, Julia. If I want to pull it apart to take care of Eliot, I will! I did! We need to go, now.” His hand slides into hers, and he pulls her in the direction of the elevators. Julia keeps her eyes fixed on the door for as long as she can. For a moment all she sees is the door, then the boys are there. They are still holding onto to each other, but now there's a shy smile on shade Quentin's face and an almost smile on Eliot's. 

They reach the elevator and Quentin jams his fingers against the buttons. Once the doors slide shut they both breath a sigh of relief. Julia squeezes his hand. 

“You're going to need someone to act as your conscious.” She tells him softly. “You're going to do a lot of stupid things.” 

“You would know best.” He tells her as the elevator dings, and the doors start to slide open. “Help keep me in line until I find somebody better.” He continues as they step out. 

Julia nods, ready to accept the challenge.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not crying, you are! Told you to get tissues from the beginning, didn't i?
> 
> I would love to know how you felt while reading this. 
> 
> Also, the title? Do you think it works, do you have a better one?
> 
> Thank you everyone for reading. I hope you enjoyed it. This is staying as a one shot!


End file.
